I Want The World To Stop
by MichaelSaniyan
Summary: The passing and change of all things is inevitable, and no matter how we try, we all drift closer to our untimely demise. My wish made me realize this. With the revelation came more hopelessness.


**AN: That title. It's a great song. Makes me think of France for some reason. ****As for the story, it's another depressing short. I promise that something a little happier is on its way, I really do. ****For a guy who claims not to like Homura, I been writing her a lot lately. Maybe because her predicament is so interesting.**

**Also spot the very obvious reference.**

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><p>Time is the reason for all of this death, sorrow and hatred.<p>

The passing and change of all things is inevitable, and no matter how we try, we all drift closer to our untimely demise.

My wish made me realize this.

With the revelation came more hopelessness.

**Tick.**

I stop time.

I do so right before I'm supposed to introduce myself to your class, Madoka. I walk into the classroom and straight up to you. Your head is turned to Sayaka, and a faint smile lights up your face. It was in this room I saw you for the first time.

You looked so confident then. Now, you seem different. Even if you're obviously happy, you're nervous about something, or maybe everything. You're not a Puella Magi yet. It's so easy to tell.

The blue-haired girl with the stupid grin is always the same. She makes me glad, because she is a constant. Predictable. Even if I sometimes wish that she wasn't.

Sayaka is your friend, Madoka. Your best friend. I've had one of those once too. But friendship is just another thing that the clock ruins.

When I unfreeze time, she will die. Eventually. Not because of Mami or me or her own foolish bravery, but because of the relentless flow of something no one can control. Not even me.

Everything starts moving. Everyone can see me. Someone screams.

**Tock.**

I stop time.

This is when you first become a Puella Magi. I see the shining pink orb that is your soul being ripped out of your tiny body. It's a beautiful and horrid sight. In front of you, Kyuubei watches as his energy quota gets a major bump from the girl who will become the strongest of all magical girls.

I resist the urge to kill him. My eyes stay locked on you. You carry an expression of innocent surprise, intrigued by the intense light that is you.

When I unfreeze time, your soul will be encased in a prison. You will become strong, confident and happy. For a while. Then the jaws of time will clamp down on you, tearing your life apart piece by piece. I've seen it before. I've been a part of it.

The world turns bright red. Kyuubei turns his furry head and stares at me with his emotionless eyes. I swear he's mocking me.

**Tick.**

I stop time.

I use my powers in battle. I inspect the array of giant bloodied shovels frozen in the air in front of me. None of them will even come close to hitting me. There is a persistent ticking in the back of my head. I only have so many seconds to act.

Is there a separate entity of time for me? How is something like this scientifically possible?

The witch is a girl with long, impossibly black hair. It's parted perfectly down the middle, and every single hair is as straight as the next. Her right hand tightly grasps a small version of the giant shovels, this one also covered in dark, dried-up blood.

Her face is terrifying. It is a little unusual for witches to have human characteristics, but when they do… Despite the witch's youthful stature and the gritty-looking school uniform, the part of her face that is visible is wrinkled and discolored. The light blue eyes are filled with such amounts of hatred and spite that I flinch.

Only one half of her face can be seen, the other is hidden behind a mask. It's a very simple thing: blindingly white, a cut out part for the eye, and a blue teardrop falling from it.

When I unfreeze time, I will destroy this twisted being. I will obliterate its pitiful existence and all of the familiars'; grown, deformed men with nooses around their necks. It will never hurt anyone ever again.

The air fills with rhythmic music without any logical source, and six shovels cut into the ground where I stood a long time ago. Everything explodes.

**Tock.**

Standing on a rooftop, I look down on busy streets. It's night, yet people have places to go and things to do. I shudder from the cold winds as I look out across the city.

I stop time.

The distant sound of cars and water stops. I don't know why I'm here. I need to think…or rather, I need not to think. It's easier to do so when you know that nothing in the world can affect you. Not even time itself.

Everything is so silent now. My breathing and my uneasy feet is all that I can hear. It's eerie, but strangely comforting.

When I unfreeze time, everything will go back to normal. People will carry on with their lives until the Walpurgisnacht comes.

I control them. I force them to suffer through life after life after life, even if they're oblivious of the process. How can my wish to protect one person resound this strongly?

My thoughts are entangled, confusing and _there._ There is screeching of tires from somewhere nearby. Maybe there has been an accident.

**Tick.**

You're crying, Madoka. I hate it when you cry. It's so inhuman, the way you scream out your pain to the world. It is the sound of a heart getting torn apart. It is the sound of a soul darkening.

It's pouring down. The Walpurgisnacht is dead, or gone, or whatever. So is everyone but me and Madoka. She has once again used all of her energy to save me. Now she's lying on her back in the mud and sludge, gritting her teeth against the agony the transformation brings. I can only watch. I'm too desensitized to do anything else.

_This is awfully futile, as I'm sure you understand._

Kyuubei.

I stop time.

I fire my gun at the white alien. Over and over again, until the air between us is glittering with deadly projectiles. My movements shatter hundreds of raindrops as I turn back to Madoka. The sight that meets me is almost enough to kill whatever sliver of resolve that's left in my body.

Her back arched, her mouth wide open in a silent scream, her small hands curled into defiant fists. Unmoving. I really captured the moment. Madoka Kaname's pain. My pain. My decision.

When I unfreeze time, a new witch will be born. Unless I use my accursed powers, it will kill me. And then what? Kyuubei will leave, his quota more than satisfied. What used to be Madoka will destroy what's left of our world. Time will move on, idly breaking the planet down until nothing remains.

Time is what turns Madoka. Time is what kills me. Time is what will destroy this planet.

Can I let that happen? Of course not.

**To-**

We're outside. It's sunny and unbearably hot, and I see Madoka walking to school. Sayaka and that other girl…Hitomi, is with her. They look generically happy, like three girls should on their to way to school. But time ticks and it will ruin their lives. Eventually.

I stop time.

I run up to the stiff girls, frozen in collective laughter. I throw myself around _my _Madoka, happy and joyful and loving Madoka. The untainted one, so different from the tormented and beat human still fresh in my memory.

I cry silently into her shoulder, and my tears stop abruptly when they leave my cheek. I want this. This moment. Forever. Time kills, it makes everything worse.

Needles of pain sting my arm, and the ticking in my head gets louder. I have to let go. Let go of Madoka and of time, so that they both can continue with their respective lives. But I can't. So I hold on.

I don't want to lose this. This person who means everything to me. Her body and heart and soul, all in one place. Her kind smile, her nervous nature, her caring touch, I want all of it.

My arm feels as if it's on fire. I squeeze Madoka tighter, refusing to let go. The back of my head is being hammered by the same relentless _tick tick tick_. I wished for this. I control time.

I don't want to let go. I want this one second to last forever. Even if all Madoka will be is a statue, she will still be here. Alive. With me.

It's bright and sunny now. It will be dark later.

It's warm and humid now. It will be cold later.

Everything is alive now. It will be dead later.

Everything is better as it is.

I just want the world to stop.

Forever.

**-ck.**


End file.
